


Dinner at Home

by AVernedi



Series: Dinner at Home [1]
Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff and Smut, Future Fic, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Porn with Feelings, Professional Baseball Player Tajima Yuuichirou, Relationship Study, Teacher Hanai Azusa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:27:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28943679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AVernedi/pseuds/AVernedi
Summary: Hanai lay down once more, offering Yuu his back. Yuu was more than happy to settle in. One of Hanai's hands came to lace his fingers with the hand Yuu had thrown over his ribs. He expected Hanai's breathing to even out, but it stayed light and awake. Then there was a tiny shift in air that Yuu recognized as Hanai about to speak. "I keep thinking about her," Hanai began.Yuu leveraged his leg over Hanai's waist to pull himself even closer. "Who?""The kind of girl your team probably pictures you with."A look at Tajima and Hanai's relationship near the end of pre-season training one year, reflecting on where they've been and where they're going. And also a lot of Tajima being horny.
Relationships: Hanai Azusa/Tajima Yuuichirou
Series: Dinner at Home [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2199579
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	Dinner at Home

**Author's Note:**

> It comes up in the anime a little bit, but if you read the manga, you find out Hanai really _really_ hates the name Azusa. In chapter 127, he mentions he literally didn't want to come to Tajima's house if it meant people were gonna start calling him Azusa. Tajima is actually the one who makes sure everyone knows to respect his desire to not have that name used. Because of that, Tajima doesn't call him "Azusa" in this fic, but rather "Azsun" as a nickname. (If you like TajiHana, that whole chapter is worth a read just for the ending.)
> 
> This is the most self-indulgent thing I have ever written.

**Thursday**

"Tajima! Where's Tajima?" The call came from José, the team captain and beefy first baseman they'd recruited from Puerto Rico. They were in the locker room after practice, everyone milling about and calling to each other.

Yuu, in the middle of a call with Hanai, didn't register that he was being spoken to _._ "I can make a pit stop," he was saying. "Whatchu need?"

"Can you get honey?" Hanai, that stupidly sexy homemaker, said. "I'll just do a glaze." Yuu liked to imagine him in his apron, the one Yoshirou made for him as a housewarming gift. It had the characters "津津有味" (‘ _eat deliciously_ ’) painted on. "One bottle should be good."

"Got it." 

"Tajima!" José's voice broke through in earnest this time. Yuu looked over at him, holding the phone slightly away from his ear. "A bunch of us are going out, you coming?"

"Where you going?" They were on strict diets right now, and while Yuu didn't mind bending the rules, if they were discussing it openly like this, it had to be somewhere special.

"There's some new vegan place downtown. They serve kombucha."

"What's kombucha?" 

"Tea, I think?" José grinned. A few of the other guys were paying them attention, and nodded their affirmation. "Apparently it's got alcohol in it sometimes."

"I _do_ miss alcohol..." His eyes went a little misty at thought. "Ah, but I can't tonight. My baby's got dinner waiting at home." He grinned apologetically. "You guys have fun though!"

"Oh ho ho." José ribbed him a little as he passed him. "Have fun yourself, lover boy." 

"Takes one to know one!" Yuu called back, laughter ringing through his voice. José's wife was back in the States and he was always up at all hours of the night calling her.

Yuu's relationship was a bit of a running joke with the rest of the guys. He knew he was uncharacteristically secretive about it, so it made sense that they had figured out something was up. There were a few theories; they must have eloped, or their parents didn't approve, or he was secretly dating a pop idol. Yuu's favorite theory was the one where José and Raoul, their shortstop from Cuba, had spun a whole lore about some kind of Romeo-and-Juliet blood feud between their families. 

Anyway, Yuu hadn't even really told the team officially that he wasn't single. It was just that they knew he didn't live with his parents and that some days he had to get home because "dinner was waiting" and it wasn't exactly hard to put those two pieces of the puzzle together. Today was one of the days that dinner was waiting. His stomach rumbled at the thought. Grabbing his things from his locker, Tajima said his final goodbyes and headed out to catch the train. There was a certain spring in his step.

He and Hanai had a good amount of give-and-take in their relationship. This was especially true when it came to sex and Yuu was grateful for that. He would get bored with having only one dynamic all the time, with always being dominant or passive. Whenever Yuu came to Hanai and said, "Hey, what do you think about this?" Hanai would always nod and say, "Let me think about it." Once after one such exchange, Yuu had come home to find Hanai sitting at their kitchen table with his stupidly hot reading glasses on, diligently reviewing the instruction manual for the wicked-looking vibrator sitting on the table beside him. It was a week after Yuu had asked him what he thought about using toys. The sight had made Yuu's heart and body grow warm in tandem.

 _If you ever let this man get away,_ he had told himself. _You're an idiot._ And he had crossed the room without even a proper greeting, just plucked the instruction manual from Hanai's hand and crawled into his lap to make out. 

The memory made him grin to himself as he stepped into the little grocery store he tended to frequent whenever he needed to pick things up on the way home from practice. This was another one of those domestic things that Yuu knew about now. Granny's Market, right by the stadium was a good store, Hanai said so. It had good prices on bulk dry goods. 

"Tajima-kun!" The lady who ran the store recognized him by this point. She didn't have much interest in baseball but she always asked if he was having fun, and always wished his team luck.

"Oba-chan!" He paused long enough to bow to her before bounding right up to the counter. "How're you today?"

"My daughter's getting divorced," she told him, flicking the newspaper that she'd been reading for emphasis.

"The one who's married to the dead-beat, good-for-nothing?" 

"The very same." 

Yuu flashed her a grin. "Hey, congratulations then." 

He poked in the cooler as he spoke. Apple juice, peach juice, Pocari... He settled for a pomegranate juice. He missed things like soda and energy drinks, almost as much as alcohol, but during the regular season the sweetest thing he could eat was the glaze Hanai was making for the meat tonight.

She told him a few details as she rang up the honey and the juice and he soaked them up eagerly. Oba-chan's gossip was the _best_. Yuu ended up lingering longer than he should have once she started explaining how her son and the good-for-nothing ex-husband had gotten into a fistfight over who was getting the dog in the divorce. Yuu finally pulled himself away, but only after making her promise to update him next time if the ex ended up pressing charges for the lost tooth.

_Hanai's gonna love to hear about this._

He and Hanai owned the two-bedroom apartment they lived in. They were young to already have a mortgage, especially in a city where real estate was so expensive, but Yuu's salary made it possible. Yuu did most of the cleaning and Hanai did most of the cooking. The second bedroom served as a guest room as well as Hanai's office while he was working from home. Their parents said this was good for helping them stay discrete but Yuu figured anyone with half a brain who'd been to their house once should be able to figure out he and Hanai didn't sleep in separate beds. Look at all the pictures on their bookcase, for crying out loud! Yuu didn't know many roommates who'd print out a selfie of one of them sticking their tongue in the other's ear. 

_"We have to keep this!_ " Yuu had insisted. _"Look at your face! It's hilarious!"_

So they had compromised. They kept that selfie as well as the one Hanai's grandma had taken on his graduation day. The camera had been zoomed in too far so all they got was Hanai's head and shoulders as well as the very top of Yuu's hair. Their entire friend group had been in stitches when they saw it. 

"I'm home!" he called out, voice even strident even though Hanai was right there, in the kitchen.

"Hey Yuuichirou." Hanai was wearing Yoshirou's apron, the one that said " _eat deliciously_." Yuu had a lot of fantasies about maybe coming home one day and he would be wearing that apron and nothing else, but Hanai said he liked it too much to risk getting cum on it. Somewhere on Yuu's wildly disorganized mental to-do list was buying Hanai another apron for his birthday, explicitly to have sex in.

"Hey-yyy." Yuu stood on his tip-toes to give him a quick peck. He had topped out at 171 cm, but Hanai was still a good 17 cm taller. "Got the stuff you wanted."

"Thanks. You can just leave it on the counter." 

"I talked to Oba-chan," Yuu said, as he took the honey out of the bag.

"At the store?" Hanai slid a plate towards him. It was full of little stacks of potatoes and peppers, skewered on toothpicks. "You can start eating those."

"Oh, sweet." Yuu took one and dragged the veggies off with his teeth. "Yeah, anyway, she said her daughter's getting divorced."

"The one married to that good-for-nothing?"

"Yup!"

Hanai smirked down at the food he was preparing. "Well hey, good for her." 

The rest of dinner was supposed to be ready in 15 minutes. Yuu passed the time by setting the table and then starting a load of laundry, even going so far as to swap out the towels in the bathroom and the kitchen. He tried to be extra on-top of the housework when he was home. When he was on the road, Hanai would be doing all of it for him.

"Thanks for doing that," Hanai said as they finally sat down at the table.

"Hey, thank _you_ for the food." They dug in.

The talk turned to their days. Hanai's sisters had come to visit him at work, and some of his students had eagerly asked if they were single. "If _both of them_ are single?" Hanai had said, turning on his students wrathfully. Apparently he had proceeded to give them a dressing down about treating identical twins like a single person.

"Buncha assholes," Yuu agreed easily. For his part he fleshed out all of Oba-chan's gossip, including how her husband was hoping the good-for-nothing ex would end up suing so they could counter-sue.

"That sounds _exhausting,_ " Hanai said with feeling.

"Sure does. Glad we just get to hear about it." Yuu offered him a wicked grin before popping some more rice in his mouth. "Hearing about drama's way more fun than participating, right?"

Hanai snorted. "You're terrible."

Yuu's grin only stretched. "You like it." His foot found Hanai's under the table, nudging.

Hanai's expression shifted. It wasn't the flirtatious look Yuu was hoping for, or even one of exasperation. He looked serious. "Hey. Yuuichirou. When you were on the phone earlier... Did I hear you call me 'baby?'"

"Oh. Yeah I did." Yuu briefly fidgeted in his seat, wondering if he'd overstepped somehow. "I mean I can't call you my boyfriend right? But they still know I'm seeing _someone._ It's gender neutral or whatever."

"Relax," Hanai assured him. "That's what I figured." He was fiddling with his chopsticks though, and the look in his eyes was distant. There was definitely something else going on in his head.

"What's up?" Yuu nudged his foot again, gently this time.

"I'm not sure," Hanai admitted. The chopsticks stirred the rice in its bowl, clink-clinking against the sides occasionally. "I guess I'm not used to hearing you call me 'baby' to other people."

That was fair. Yuu didn't call Hanai his baby a lot. He'd said it the first time as a joke, and they were both equally surprised when they realized Hanai _liked_ it. Still, calling someone 'baby' didn't really feel like Yuu's style, and Hanai was too embarrassed about being into it, so its use was pretty much exclusive to the bedroom.

"Well," Yuu said eventually. "If you ever get done thinking about it, you should tell me, okay?"

"Yeah." Hanai smiled a little and his posture soothed. "Yeah, I will."

Cleaning up after dinner was Yuu's job. By the time he'd finished, Hanai was back in his home office, grading homework. Yuu hung on the doorway from a moment, one hand on either side of the doorjamb as he leaned forward, just watching him. Hanai knew he was there, Yuu could see a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. Yuu let himself enjoy the combination of the reading glasses and Hanai's button-up and dress slacks. He always stayed in his work clothes when he had to do grading in the evenings. He said it let him stay focused that way. 

"Hey-yy sensei," Yuu said when his patience couldn't hold any longer.

"I'll be done in twenty minutes," Hanai said, not looking at him. The smile remained. "You can come back during office hours." 

Yuu whined. Even with every intention of complying, he was totally justified in being whiny, he figured. He hadn't seen Hanai _all day_ and he wanted to be near him, even if Hanai had to work. "I just wanna hang out, okay?"

Hanai's smile curled a little sassy and he finally glanced at Yuu out of the corner of his eye. "I'll allow it." His eyes returned to his work. 

Permission having been granted, he was determined to do nothing to get it revoked. Yuu sprawled quietly on the floor near Hanai's desk, pulling out his phone to entertain himself. He checked his messages. Ren, the person he still talked to most from his high school days, had sent him a quiz: "Which Weird Snack Food Should You Start Eating?" Ren, apparently, should be chomping down yak jerky. 

Yuu was about halfway through the quiz when he heard Hanai shift around in his chair. Turning himself sideways, Hanai turned to plant his feet on Yuu's back, using his boyfriend as a footrest. 

Yuu looked up. Hanai was already looking down at him. "You comfortable?" Yuu asked, feeling oddly smug. Looked like he wasn't the only one who wanted to be close.

"Oh, I'm great." Hanai looked smug right back.

If Yuu wasn't such a horny person, he was sure this could not have been getting to him. As it was, he was a Tajima and Tajimas were horny and if Hanai was in the room with him, he was halfway to turned on anyway. So while he pretended to look at his phone, he was happily conjuring up a fantasy where he was naked this time, just kneeling at Hanai's feet. Oohh, maybe he could be wearing a collar too. And a leash.

 _Maybe we should buy a collar._ He kicked his legs contentedly at the thought. 

The kneeling fantasy was probably the kind of thing that was only fun in his head though. He'd get way too bored if Hanai asked him to kneel for even five minutes. So he contented himself with just appreciating the concept, appreciating how hot his boyfriend was when he was feeling cocky and a little bossy. 

_I still want the collar though._

"There," Hanai said, some indeterminable number of minutes later. "Done." He set the last of his papers down at his desk and sat up properly, removing his feet from Yuu's back and planting them on the floor. 

" _Finally,_ " Yuu groaned and scrambled up to his knees, practically dropping his phone to the floor in his haste. In a flash he seated himself between Hanai's legs, spreading his thighs apart, looking up at him. "You took _forever_." 

After so many years together, Hanai didn't really get flustered at Yuu's forwardness anymore. As it was he just made a noise that was somewhere between a sigh and a laugh. "You know I have work in the evenings, Yuuichirou," he said. However, as he spoke he reached out to run a hand through Yuu's hair, nails scratching at his scalp gently before coming to trace the shell of Yuu's ear. He knew Yuu was a sucker for that, and smiled down at him when Yuu nuzzled his palm a little.

"We should try that thing again," Yuu said, hands back at work on the fastenings of Hanai's pants. "I bet I could do better this time."

Hanai arched an eyebrow. "You mean 'that thing' where I try to mark papers while you're under the desk?" 

"Yeah!"

"That was a _disaster_ ," Hanai said with feeling, hitching his hips up so Yuu could get his pants down. "I can't just be in class, associating my students' homework with, with getting," swallow, " _cock-teased_ for an hour!" Okay, he still got flustered a little. He totally sputtered that last part.

Yuu deliberately gave him his most wide-eyed, innocent expression. "Why not?" 

Hanai stared back down at him. "Yuuichirou," he warned. 

Yuu placed his hands on Hanai's inner thighs and forced his legs even wider. "Should I call this make-up work then, sensei?"

Hanai growled. "Make another school joke and you're sleeping on the couch." His hand however, found the back of Yuu's head, fingers digging in insistently. Yuu just laughed. School jokes aside, Hanai liked getting called 'sensei' and they both knew it.

Yuu had known some guys in the past who said they didn't go into sex thinking about their partner's orgasm. Yuu didn't get that line of thinking at _all._ Sure, Hanai was way more amazing and cool than most people, but if you were gonna be with someone you should enjoy _being_ with them, right? Who didn't want to focus on all the orgasms in the equation? Who didn't enjoy what their partner was like when they felt good? Yuu for his part knew Hanai was feeling good when he had to take his glasses off to rub his face. Yeah there he went, pushing them up with a frustrated groan, grinding the heels of his hands into his eyes.

Yuu slowed. Hanai chanced a peek down. Yuu grinned up at him, hand wrapped around the base, tip ever-so-gently held in his teeth. It was comfortable down here.

" _Shit,_ Yuu." He covered his face again. Yuu hummed in acknowledgement and got back to work.

Hanai was a gentleman about getting head, always warning when he was close, never getting rougher than Yuu explicitly asked for. His fingers even came down to stroke at Yuu's ear sometimes, to get him to shiver. They pinched hard when Yuu moved _just so,_ the beginnings of a warning. "Yuu—" came that familiar stretched-out growl. Yuu pulled back, and when Hanai finished, he caught it in his hands. 

"All good, sensei?" Yuu asked once Hanai had caught his breath. He flashed his teeth as Hanai panted down at him. 

"Shut up." Hanai ran his hand over his face again but Yuu could tell he was smiling. "You _know_ that was good," he said, sounding almost accusatory.

Yuu's grin just stretched. He knew. "I'm gonna wash my hands," Yuu told him, climbing to his feet. 

A trail of spend was dripping from his palm around to the other side of his hand. He gave it a swipe with his tongue to catch it. Hanai made a choked-off noise behind him. Turning away, Yuu grinned. Hanai could be so easy to rile up, sometimes Yuu didn't even have to _try_. Which was only fair because, again, Yuu was always halfway aroused when Hanai was in the room. If Yuu being one nasty motherfucker was what levelled the playing field, well hey, it was only fair. 

Hanai appeared in the bathroom doorway while he was washing his hands. "It's your turn," he said.

Yuu smiled at him in the mirror even as he reached to turn off the faucet. "Get at me then."

Hanai came up behind him, pressing the length of his body against Yuu's back, pinning his hips against the sink. Leaning down, he kissed his way down the side of Yuu's neck. His breath made the skin pleasantly ticklish along with his hair, which he had stopped shaving sometime in college. Yuu sighed, melting against the counter a bit. Hanai might deny it himself, but he was sweet. 

"Shirt off," Hanai said. It was more an announcement than a command because he was already lifting Yuu's shirt as he spoke, running his palms in two identical sweeps up Yuu's ribs as he pushed the fabric. Yuu raised his arms and they both let it fall to the bathroom floor. 

As Yuu planted his palms on the counter again, Hanai leaned down and began mouthing at Yuu's shoulder. _Probably gonna get another hickey outta this_ , Yuu thought smugly. Hanai was always leaving hickeys. Yuu loved them. There was something about the bold purple bruises with their discrete, under-the-shirt placement that was just so typical of Hanai. His boyfriend was proper and domestic and possessive all at once and Yuu had never liked anyone half this much. 

"Azsu— _ah._ " His breath left him in a pleasant sigh as Hanai's teeth began to scrape against his ear. He didn't know why his ears were so sensitive, but hey, an extra erogenous zone was an extra erogenous zone. It was another area for Hanai to suck into his mouth to make Yuu whine as he was pinned against the sink. Their eyes met in the mirror. Hanai grinned around his earlobe.

"Hey you," he murmured, one hand coming around to undo the drawstring of Yuu's gym shorts. Yuu squirmed. It was hard not to when he was on the receiving end of Hanai's hand, not to mention his voice in Yuu's ear getting all sappy like that. It was made extra intense by his own reflection in the mirror. Yuu could see the color in his cheeks and the way his eyelids fluttered when Hanai's mouth fell to kissing his neck again. He could see how small and slender he looked framed by Hanai's body. He could see Hanai peeking up through his eyelashes sometimes, checking Yuu's reaction, making sure he was feeling good. 

_God, he loves me,_ Yuu thought around a breathy laugh. His hips were rocking forward now. When he tilted his head back, it couldn't quite get up onto Hanai's shoulder, just rested on his chest. _God, I'm crazy about him._

He dropped his head when he came, eyes closed and body trembling. Hanai kept his hand down Yuu's pants, letting him grind himself off against the broad palm. It also, Yuu realized as he came back to himself, had the added bonus of keeping him from rutting against the cabinet door. That probably would've hurt.

Hanai pressed a kiss to the back of Yuu's sweaty neck. He tugged on the waistband of Yuu's boxers as he spoke. "Don't forget to pre-soak these before you put them in the wash."

Yuu's laugh was halfway to a groan. "You're really ruining my afterglow, you know that?" Then his head tipped back again and he groaned in earnest. "Ugh, I gotta get the laundry outta the washing machine."

"Better hurry. Our crime drama's on soon." Despite his words, Hanai was slow to get off him, face pressed into the back of Yuu's head, breathing him in.

Yuu recognized what he was after. "We can cuddle on the couch," he assured him.

"Mm." Hanai nuzzled into his hair. "Yeah, okay. Better hurry up though."

"Needy-yyy," Yuu teased.

Hanai huffed against his neck. "I'm not the one waiting around to blow someone at their desk."

"Hey! You _like_ it when I blow you at your desk."

Hanai just huffed and tried to walk away like he had any dignity. Yuu swatted his ass and enjoyed the resulting squawk.

By the time he'd gotten their laundry all hung up, Hanai had showered and changed into his sweats. Yuu found him sprawled comfortably on the couch. A pot of tea was sitting on its coaster on the coffee table. Yuu crawled onto the couch, shifting around until his head was lying on Hanai's chest. Their drama was just starting.

"I still think he should get a job," Hanai complained as the main character proceeded to have an argument with his mother about money for the third episode in a row. When they were lying like this, Yuu could feel the rumbles against his cheek whenever Hanai spoke.

"But he's gotta get hired by the police at some point right? That's why he keeps dropping off his resume!"

"And what's wrong with getting a part-time job in the meantime?" Hanai tilted his head to frown at him. 

Yuu was unrepentant. "Who wants to watch that?"

When the episode finished, Hanai put on the news. Yuu was content to play on his phone, listening with half an ear. At some point, they had shifted around so they were spooning. It was Yuu's day to be the small spoon it seemed. Hanai's arm was around his waist loosely, and their legs were tangled comfortably. Yuu had always thought their relationship would be very different if they didn't both like touching so much. 

Yuu was just in the middle of sending Ren a quiz called "What Color is Your Aura?" (his was orange) when he realized that Hanai's breathing was getting deep and even behind him. He wiggled onto his back to get a better look. Hanai's lips were parted slightly, his cheek squished against the couch cushion. Yuu nudged him with his shoulder. 

"Azsun. Azsun-nnn. It's bedtime."

Hanai's face scrunched. "Nnnn." 

"Come on, I'll carry you." 

The half of Hanai's face that wasn't smushed into the couch smiled a little. "Mmkay." He sat up blearily and Yuu guided his arms onto his shoulders. It surprised people who didn't know them how easy it was to carry Hanai on his back. Hanai himself had long since learned not to question Yuu's strength. His boyfriend was warm and soft against his body as Yuu carried him piggy-back to their bed.

**Friday**

José was the one on the phone this time. Yuu was hanging around outside the locker rooms with Raoul after practice. They were both waiting for José to finish talking. Also Monica, Raoul's translator. Monica was pretty cool. She was sticking around until Raoul got fully comfortable with his Japanese, but Raoul's Japanese was coming along well enough that sometimes Yuu was just having a conversation with two people instead of one.

"You gonna come with us next time?" Raoul was asking him. "To the restaurant?" Apparently dinner at the vegan place had been a smash hit.

"When's next time?" They had showered and changed already. His sports bag was slung over his shoulder, all ready to go. He didn't need to run any errands today so he could feel relaxed about hanging around to chat.

"We want to do it at the end of spring training. Have a..." Here, Raoul paused to consult with Monica. "Party?"

"A celebration?" she supplied.

"Yeah," Raoul agreed. "That."

"That'd be cool." Yuu looked to Monica curiously. Raoul was Cuban, but she was American like José, though her mother had been Japanese. She was tiny, probably about 150cm. "You liked it too?" he asked her.

"It was actually really good," Monica said. "And kombucha's been all the rage in California for years so I was happy with it." 

"I didn't like it," Raoul said, once Monica had explained to him what she'd said. "Doesn't taste like beer and doesn't taste like tea."

"Sounds weird," Yuu said with an easy grin.

"It takes some getting used to," Monica agreed. 

A raised voice made them all turn. José, still on the phone, was starting to pace. 

"...He's really getting into it, huh?" Yuu commented.

"...Yup," Monica agreed.

"What's he saying?" 

"He just told whoever it is to put their dad on the phone."

"He's talking to his wife," Raoul added.

"Sounds like his father-in-law's in trouble," Yuu said. 

José's volume could well and truly be called yelling now. It was probably a good thing that if he was gonna have a shouting match with someone, it would be at the practice fields. Better here than, say, on the public transit. Yuu knew a lot of people found José, with his large stature and larger presence, intimidating. It was too bad really. The man was a total teddy bear.

Beside him, he suddenly became aware that Raoul had gone stone-faced. Monica let out a tiny breath. "Ah," she said.

"What?" Yuu looked between them. "What?"

Monica hesitated. "José's yelling like, 'so what if he's gay.'" She paused, listening for a moment. "It sounds like the dad was pretty upset when his son came out and now José's upset with him for being upset."

Raoul scoffed, before saying something in a rapid-fire pace to Monica. She made a soft noise of agreement. 

"What?" Yuu asked.

"'The older generation can be like that,'" she translated. "He says just because they survived 60 years of life, they think that means they get to stop learning."

"He's got a point," Yuu agreed, eyes drifting back over to where José seemed to have fallen into yelling the same phrase into the receiver over and over again. A strange kind of excitement was brewing in Yuu's stomach, crawling its way up his spine. 

"Oh, sounds like the father-in-law gave the phone back to the wife," Monica said. The three of them watched as José scrubbed a hand through his hair. His energy had definitely changed. He was still pissed, but no longer yelling. If Yuu had to describe his tone now, it was more like commiserating than anything.

"Sorry about that," José said as he finally came back over to them. "Otou-san's a stubborn old bird, you know?" 

"Sounds like it," Monica agreed sympathetically.

"It's like... _ughhh_." José managed to convey a lot with that one groan. "Isn't he still your son? Aren't you still supposed to be his dad? Damn." The frown on his face was fairly impressive. He trained it on the three of them, daring them to disagree with him. "If I was back home right now, I would have gone straight over to their house, let me tell you." His thumb was drumming an agitated rhythm over his crossed arms. "Anyway. How you all doing?"

Raoul said something to him in Spanish. The two of them immediately fell into an excitable conversation that appeared to just be them agreeing with each other over and over again.

"Is he dating anyone? Your brother-in-law?" Monica asked. 

"Yeah, apparently? Which Elena," his wife, "says she didn't even know. But whoever this guy is, sounds like they're serious enough he wanted to tell the parents about him." 

"Damn," Yuu said. "Hope things work out."

José sighed. "Yeah me too." Then his attention refocused. "Anyway. How about it Tajima? You hear we wanna go back to the vegan place at the end of training camp?"

"Sure did!" Yuu fell into step with them easily as they headed off the field. His mind was racing. "Are we all gonna fit?"

"We're going to talk to management about it," José explained. "It'd probably be best to rent out the entire place."

"Oooh," Yuu enthused. "Maybe they'd take a picture of all of us! And put it on the wall!"

"I've always wanted to be one of those guys," José agreed. "It looks so fun to get written up in a local paper or something for eating at someone's uncle's restaurant."

"That's why he wanted to go pro," Raoul put in, solemnly. "To eat at some uncle's restaurant."

"That is the exact reason," José agreed. They both held their serious faces for a moment before breaking into grins. Yuu and Monica grinned too.

It was only a few minute walk from the stadium to Granny's Market. "Hey Oba-chan!" Yuu called as he entered. "I brought some friends with me!" He wasn't the only guy on the team who stopped by the stores around the stadium, but he was by far Oba-chan's most loyal customer on the team. Oba-chan looked up from her newspaper and gave his companions a friendly nod in acknowledgement.

"Oba-chan," José told her. "You should take our picture and hang it on your wall." He pointed to an empty space on the back wall behind the counter. "People will like it."

"Why?" Oba-chan told him, a sassy twinkle in her eye. "Are you important or something?" Behind him, Raoul roared with laughter.

"You know," Yuu said, popping his head out of the cooler, where he had been grabbing his juice. "I knew a guy on my baseball team in school who was into guys." His tone was perfectly at ease. Like the guy in question wasn’t him.

"Oh yeah?" José asked politely. He was buying himself a bag of sunflower seeds. Everyone teased him for being cliché but he didn't care. 

"Yeah. Cool guy."

"There were some girls on my soccer team in high school who were gay too," Monica agreed.

"See this is what my problem is," José said as he brought his sunflower seeds up to the counter. "Otou-san acts like being gay is this rare disease you know? We don't know how to get it through his head."

Oba-chan hummed as she rang him up. "My husband was gay for a while in college, you know," she told them.

They all stared. Then Yuu laughed. "Oji-chan sounds like a cool guy," he told her.

She sniffed. "He didn't pick up his socks this morning." Yuu laughed again. And when they left the convenience store again, there was a definite spring in his step.

Obviously it wasn't as simple as it could have been, dating another guy. Neither of them had ever really been prepared for the possibility. But Yuu wasn't stupid. He knew it didn't happen every day, liking someone this much. If he'd waited around long enough, he probably could have found a girl, maybe. But, well.

He remembered the first time he'd realized Hanai had a hold on him in a way most people didn't. It hadn't been a particularly sappy moment or anything, but maybe for Yuu that just figured. They had been at their graduation party, hosted at the Tajima house, and everyone was drinking behind the barn. A bunch of the guys had been talking about sex, a not-uncommon topic when they were away from adult supervision. They didn't even need to have a few drinks in them to do it, though it made for a nice excuse. 

Hanai had been talking right along with them, unconcerned about propriety with no adults around. Yuu had remembered thinking that Hanai after-hours was different than Hanai the captain. He was more relaxed, more laid-back and loose, capable of flashes of outright cockiness.

At some point, Takaya had called, "Hanai!" and Hanai had gotten up to answer. When he had come back, there was a certain amount of the team captain back on his face. _Team Captain Lite,_ Yuu had remembered thinking. 

"Guys. Listen up," he had said. "The girls from the softball team are coming over. Tajima-obasan already approved it, so it's time to put the sex talk away." 

The resulting chorus of "yes sir!" was both wry and sincere all at once. After so much time playing together it was a conditioned response to Hanai's voice taking on a certain tone. Yuu was still grinning about it as he got up to get another drink. 

Hanai's arm had found his shoulder, stopping him cold. "I mean it Yuuichirou," he had added quietly, turning Yuu's body to shield him from the rest of the circle, creating a semblance of privacy. His voice had pitched low. "Make any of these girls uncomfortable, and you and I are gonna have a problem." 

Yuu's body had _flamed._ It was a strange cocktail of emotions. His first thought was offense at the idea that he would ever make a girl uncomfortable on purpose. His second, logic chasing at its heels, pointed out that he had less shame than most people and the habit of talking loudly besides. Hanai, as the one tasked with making sure he kept his clothes on all these years, was deeply aware of that. There was also a kind of burning frustrated ache, which he later unraveled as a profound longing, the need to be secure in Hanai's good opinion of him. Last was a wash of arousal for Hanai's voice, with its newly adult depth and its authority, and his big strong body as it leaned towards Yuu's. 

The arousal was probably the loudest. It was _definitely_ the least confusing. 

But Yuu was nothing if not steady under pressure, so he had just offered a simple smile and said, "I got it Hanai," in his most assuring tone. This was before Hanai had been ‘Azsun’ to Yuu. Yuu had taken all the feelings and sensations that moment had caused him and rolled them all into one confusing ball. 

He spent the rest of the break between graduation and college trying to tease it out. His mind had always gotten stuck replaying that moment, the low scrape of Hanai's voice when he said "you and I are gonna have a problem, Yuuichirou." The ensuing typhoon of emotions. No one else had ever done that to him, and Hanai wasn't even _trying._

"Hey-yyy!" he called, flinging the apartment door open.

"Welcome back," Hanai called. He was busy at the cutting board when Yuu came into the kitchen. Wrapping his arms around Hanai's waist, he rested his forehead between his shoulder blades. He was wearing a soft t-shirt today, meaning he didn't have any work to do after dinner. Yuu nuzzled against the fabric and Hanai hummed. He sounded happy.

"Talked to José today," he said. From this angle he could check out Hanai's ass all he wanted. 

"Oh? About what?" Hanai's back shifted slightly as he turned his head a few degrees, listening. 

"Said his brother-in-law is gay. Got mad at his father-in-law for making a big deal about it. All this stuff about people needing to get with the times." Hanai was a smart guy. He'd be able to fill in the blanks. 

He felt Hanai pause, could practically feel the thoughts swirling under his skin. "José's the team captain isn't he?" Hanai asked.

"He sure is." 

This was the other thing about dating another guy. People were more accepting these days but Yuu was a professional athlete. Part of his job was being on tv, signing autographs, even posing on the occasional billboard. He shared a locker room. Everyone was constantly telling him that those kinds of things meant he had to be _discrete_. Discretion required a kind of patience that didn't come naturally to Yuu. It felt like constantly trying to creep out over the ice, testing its hold, when all he wanted to do was charge right out, maybe with a full team of sled dogs or something. They'd watched a documentary like that one night.

Hanai turned in his hold, looking down at him. "You want to tell him?" Hanai asked. His face searched Yuu's carefully, slipping his arms around Yuu's shoulders, complementary to Yuu's arms around his waist.

Yuu rested his chin on Hanai's sternum. "Is it cool with you?" He stared up into that gorgeous face.

Hanai's eyebrows pinched every so slightly. There was a slight tightness that appeared around his eyes. Yuu wasn't concerned. It meant Hanai was thinking. "...It would be nice," he admitted finally. "Is he the only one you wanna tell?"

"And Raoul. And Monica."

Hanai's eyebrows drew a little closer. Still thinking. And then to Yuu's surprise, he looked away. Let his arms drop, resting his palms on the edge of the counter. Yuu felt his eyebrows go up. Hanai was _embarrassed._

"What?" Yuu asked. 

"...It was nice you know? Yesterday. When I heard you on the phone."

The smile was already breaking over Yuu's face before Hanai even finished speaking. "Yeah?"

"When you, uh. When."

"When I called you 'baby?'" Yuu let himself tilt forward, forcing Hanai to take his weight a bit. 

"Yeah." It came out soft, almost shy. Hanai's hand came up to scrub through Yuu's hair. "It was nice to hear that. You made it sound easy."

Yuu released his waist to slip his hands up onto the edge of the counter, leaning even further forward until they were pressed together. "It was!" 

He knew even Hanai got sick of being patient, of being discrete. It was nice for both of them to imagine Yuu just being able to say, 'my baby' in mixed company and not have it be a big deal. It was nice enough that Hanai was already leaning down to kiss him. 

Yuu tilted his head to meet him. In English, he murmured, " _Heya baby._ " 

This was the life; making out in the kitchen of their own apartment, dinner ready to go, content in the knowledge that they didn't have to rush. The bedroom wasn't going anywhere. Neither was the couch, or the shower, or the wall. When Yuu's stomach growled, they both broke away with a laugh.

"Come on," Hanai said, leaning back. "You need to set the table." 

"Aye, aye, captain," he said, slipping away to comply. "Oh yeah," he called over his shoulder as pulled some dishes out of the cupboard. "The team wants to have a party once training camp is over. There's some fancy vegan restaurant everyone wants to go to."

"Oh nice." Hanai had made cold noodles for dinner tonight. He was putting on the finishing touches now, cutting carrots into fancy shapes for garnish. 

"You should come with me!" Hanai glanced at him. Yuu plowed forward. "I could just introduce you as my friend. It wouldn't have to be a big deal."

He watched Hanai bite-down his knee-jerk reaction, a balk. His poker face had gotten better over the years if only a little. "Let me think about it?" he asked. It was a phrase that had come to serve him well. Hanai could be everything everyone needed him to be, but sometimes he just needed to breathe first. Yuu had learned to respect that process.

So he nodded. "Totally."

"...I think it's gonna depend on how José takes it," Hanai admitted a minute later, as he was bringing the noodles to the table. "If a few people know, I could be fine with it."

If Yuu were to say ' _Well then, guess I gotta let a few people know'_ Hanai would feel pressured. He'd learned that the hard way. "Cool," he said instead. "Hey, how was your day?" 

"Well," Hanai began. "Some of my students want us to game together once they graduate."

"Oh, 'cause you can't add them while you're still their teacher right?" Hanai taught Japanese as a foreign language. Most of his students were young adults, looking to get their Japanese up to par to enter either university or the workforce.

"Exactly. It's a matter of boundaries."

"If you do end up adding them, we should all play together sometime! It would be fun."

Hanai snorted. "Well it wouldn't be boring," he agreed. 

"I'm never boring."

"You sure aren't."

And the conversation fell into more comfortable lines.

Once dinner was finished, Yuu started clearing the table, stacking the dishes together into an efficient pile. Hanai pushed his chair back from the table and stretched luxuriously. "I think I'm gonna take a bath," he said.

"Ohhh, wait for me! We haven't done it in the tub in ages!"

"We had sex in the tub last month."

" _Ages,_ Azsun," Yuu said, flinging himself against Hanai's shoulder dramatically. 

He was shoved off with an exasperated huff. "You're insatiable, you know that?" 

"Damn right I am." Yuu grinned. "So you'll wait for me?"

"Fine," Hanai sighed. "But don't take too long," he warned. 

They had sex more days than not. Yuu got the impression that that was pretty unusual for a couple that had been together as long as they had. Some couples didn't need to bone a lot. Nothing wrong with that, Yuu figured. It was definitely down to Yuu's own sex drive that the they had sex this much. He could very comfortably have sex like four times a day, even if no one had that kind of time. Hanai himself had said once a day was his sweet spot, which meant that the roughly four nights a week they were getting it on was perfectly sustainable for both of them. 

Yuu finished the dishes in record time. He was wiping his hands on his gym shorts on the way to the bathroom. "Knock knock!" he sang out, flinging the door open.

Their tub was an old in-ground one. Hanai was lounging already, looking perfectly comfortable in the warm water. "Did you remember to wipe down the stove?" he asked as Yuu shut the door.

"Stove-schmove. I'll get it after." 

He stripped with a total lack of ceremony and was in the tub in an instant, hands gripping the sides as he held himself over Hanai, just looking at him. Hanai's skin was flushed. Drops of water were clinging to his chest, his hair, his shoulders. One was rolling down his temple and Yuu leaned forward and licked it off. Hanai just laughed, a puff of air, and put his hands to Yuu's waist to lower him down into his lap. Yuu wiggled a little, getting comfortable, and then slipped his arms over Hanai's shoulders and took his bottom lip in his teeth. 

Grinding, grinding. Friction was such a powerful thing, especially when there was so much wet skin in the equation. He was rolling himself against Hanai's lap in slow, forceful waves, Hanai's hands gripping his thighs to keep him stable. 

"You wanna come like this?" Hanai asked when they pulled back to breathe. "Just grinding?"

Yuu grinned. "Well hey, if you got some ideas..."

"I could get the lube and finger you," Hanai said. "Or if you want to sit on the edge of the tub, I could blow you."

Both _very_ good suggestions. "Hmm." Yuu pressed his face to the crook of Hanai's neck as he thought. Hanai was good at giving head, and his fingers were long and clever. Still, both those things would involve getting out of the tub and the water was nice and warm. Also he was enjoying the skin-to-skin contact too much to want to give it up for even a minute. "Wait, I got it!" he said, straightening back up. "You should bend me over the side of the tub. Grind on me from the back."

Hanai inhaled deeply, picturing it. Yuu had the pleasure of watching his pupils dilate further. He got right in Hanai's face to study the effect, the deep brown of Hanai's irises almost invisible. Hanai allowed it with a tolerant little smile. By this point, he was more than used to Yuu staring at him. "Okay," he agreed, running a hand up Yuu's spine. Yuu shivered at the way it caused new trails of water to run down his back. "But you have to move _carefully._ "

"Sure." And Yuu pushed himself up enthusiastically, spilling water over the sides of the tub.

"You know you make more work for yourself when you do that," Hanai commented.

"Totally worth it," Yuu countered. "Besides. I'm not the one who always fills the tub so full."

"It's not relaxing if it's not full!"

"Yeah, but that's what the sex is for." Yuu braced his hands on the edge of a tub with a slight frown, testing his grip. The porcelain rim was slick with water. There was no getting around that.

Hanai realized the problem at the same time Yuu did. "Here," he said, raising himself half-way out of the bath and sloshing to the side like an uncertain crab. "Move to this end and you can brace yourself on the corners." 

"Sometimes I wish real life was like porn," Yuu said as he moved to comply. "They never have to work this stuff out in porn."

"True," Hanai admitted. "But there's still stuff in porn I wouldn't want to see in real life. Like how much cum they get on the couch."

"Yeah, getting jizz out of fabric sucks."

"And if someone offered to let me fuck them in return for fixing their car, I would probably just make a break for it." 

Yuu laughed. "You don't even know how to fix a car!"

"Shut up." But Hanai was smiling too. "I know how to change a tire at least." He waited until Yuu had leaned into the narrower end of the tub, testing his grip a few times. "All good?"

"All good." 

"Good." Hanai curled himself over Yuu's back carefully and Yuu inhaled. Normally when they did this, he could smell Hanai surrounding him. The bath cancelled that out but that didn't mean he didn't bask in the feeling of his boyfriend pressed along him from head to toe. He felt Hanai settling himself in carefully, testing Yuu's balance for himself. He gave a tentative roll of his body and Yuu felt interest burning itself low in his stomach. Another roll, harder this time, and the breath hitched in the back of Yuu's throat. 

"Yeah," he sighed. "Like that."

Hanai gave a pleased rumble which Yuu felt all along his spine. Hanai worked them up slow and hard, nibbling at the soft skin behind Yuu's ear until Yuu was writhing beneath him. His little whines and gasps joined the steam that thickened the air. There was something to be said for being on top, for turning Hanai into putty, but this, oh this was good too. When all he could do was push his hands harder into the corners of the tub and let Hanai run the show.

When Yuu had dropped his head, and was whining with Hanai's every forward motion, Hanai started forcing more of his weight onto Yuu's back. "Down," he murmured against the damp heat of Yuu's skin. "Down Yuuichirou." Yuu went down easily, planting his forearms against the damp tile, the grooves between each square affording him a biting kind of balance. "Good," Hanai breathed, grinding against him with renewed power. 

When they were both burning up, sweat mixing with condensation on their skin, Yuu felt Hanai rest his forehead at the base of his neck and groan.

"Azsun?" Yuu asked, his voice leaving him in a gasp. His muscles were starting to shake, both with the force of Hanai's weight and the sweet, coiling arousal taking hold of his body. 

"We have to—" Hanai made a noise like a choked-off growl. "Yuu—Yuu, next time we should—hah, fuck. I wanna get closer."

Yuu's nails curled into his palms as Hanai gave a particularly hard, frustrated grind. "You got it, baby." He gasped as one of Hanai's hands suddenly planted itself by Yuu's forearms, trying to re-balance his weight. The pressure bent Yuu even further, until he dropped his forehead to the tile, feeling pinned and weak in the best way. Hanai's other hand found its way between Yuu's legs, stroking _hard_ , and then he was undone. They soiled the bathwater together, Hanai finishing a moment later, riding Yuu through his aftershocks. 

Once they caught their breath, they resettled at opposite ends of the tub, facing each other. They bathed each other in the past but had learned that doing it while they were both sensitive post-orgasm was not the most pleasant experience. Once they were done, Yuu grabbed the squeegie he'd gotten especially for their bathroom and quickly pushed the worst of the overflow water down the drain in the bathroom floor. 

They spent the remaining few hours before bed just existing together in the living room. Hanai sprawled on the couch, reading some seinen that was probably full of metaphors and symbolism and shit. Yuu sat on the zaisu chair on the floor, playing video games. 

"If Nakamura knew what your username was, she'd wring your neck," Hanai commented at one point. Nakamura was Yuu's agent. They both watched as Yuu's play of the game was flashing up on screen. His username, 'NotTajimaYuu' flashed with it. 

"S'better to ask forgiveness than permission, right?" Yuu laughed. "Besides, not like anyone online would ever believe me anyway."

"As long as you don't get in voice chat."

"I should get _you_ in voice chat for me one of these days."

Hanai snorted. "Sure, why not? Might be fun to heckle every decision you make." Yuu craned his neck all the way back to stick his tongue out at him.

Tomorrow was the weekend which meant they got to stay up a little later than usual. Hanai began yawning about an hour past their usual bedtime, rolling himself off the couch and murmuring, "Don't stay up too late," as he trundled off to bed.

"Mmmkay." Yuu didn't take his eyes off the screen. Engrossed as he was, three more games had gone by before he fully processed the time. _Oh shit,_ he thought. _I wanna cuddle._ Getting out of the game queue, he picked himself up and made for the bedroom.

The light was still on, thankfully. Hanai was curled on his side, trying to finish his manga even though it was clear whatever he was reading was no longer processing. His cheek looked heavy on his hand and his eyelids kept slipping closed. He made a sound of acknowledgement as Yuu slipped into bed beside him. 

Pressing right up to him, Yuu threw a leg over Hanai's waist and an arm over his ribs. "Snuggle time," he announced into Hanai's pajama shirt.

"Snuggle time," Hanai repeated. His voice sounded so sleepy. He gave a yawn and did a kind of half roll to look at Yuu over his shoulder. "Did you brush your teeth?"

"Nah, I still got the tv on."

"Oh." Hanai yawned again. "You coming to bed soon?" 

"Yeah, but I'm really on a roll. I wanna win one more game first." 

The noise Hanai made was distinctly grumpy. Yuu laughed and nuzzled into his shoulder. 

"Hey I know you need your cuddles! That's why I came now." 

"But it's cold when you leave again," Hanai muttered, sleepiness making him petulant. 

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?"

Another loud, grumpy noise. But Hanai rolled over again and put his book on his nightstand. Turning off the lamp, he lay down once more, offering Yuu his back. Yuu was more than happy to settle in. One of Hanai's hands came to lace his fingers with the hand Yuu had thrown over his ribs. Yuu thought to himself, as he often had, that people should add cuddle-compatibility to the list of things to look for in a relationship. Everyone knew to worry about sexual chemistry, sure. But cuddle chemistry? By far the unsung hero. Criminal how underappreciated it was. There was something so nice about being warm and close like this, about soaking in Hanai's presence and knowing that he _wanted_ to be there.

He expected Hanai's breathing to even out, but it stayed light and awake. Then there was a tiny shift in air that Yuu recognized as Hanai about to speak. "I keep thinking about her," Hanai began. 

Yuu leveraged his leg over Hanai's waist to pull himself even closer. "Who?"

"The kind of girl your team probably pictures you with." Hanai's voice didn't sound bitter or jealous or anything bad. Really he sounded almost thoughtful. "She's probably really pretty. She's _definitely_ short." Yuu snorted. There was a smile in Hanai's voice as he continued. "I keep imagining how surprised they'd be if I showed up, and they realized that _I'm_ the one you talk about when you talk about 'your baby.’'' A sigh escaped him. "...I'd love to see the looks on their faces," he concluded.

"You're smug about this," Yuu realized. A slow smile broke across his face. He couldn't help it. It was just so much better than frustration or anger or any of the other things that would totally make sense in light of the fact that none of Yuu's teammates even knew Hanai Azusa's name. 

"Yeah," Hanai admitted quietly. His fingers untangled and tangled with Yuu's. "Whoever that girl is, you're not with her. You're not with some other guy. You're with me." His hand gripped tight. "You have an apartment and a mortgage with _me_." _I win,_ went unsaid but Yuu heard it loud and clear. He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against Hanai's back, breathing in deeply. When Hanai said stuff like that, Yuu's feelings felt too big for his body. When Hanai talked like that, something in Yuu's chest sunk in its claws and purred.

"Hey," he said, giving a wriggle. "Hey. I wanna make out with you right now." 

Hanai laughed, already rolling onto his back. "Well, when don't you." His tone was still smug and sexy and Yuu desperately wanted to straddle him and kiss him senseless. 

But under his layers of smugness and thoughtfulness Hanai was still mostly sleepy, so Yuu just contented himself with the short, languid series of kisses he permitted before they fell back to cuddling. Hanai pressed his forehead into the crook of Yuu's shoulder, and Yuu repositioned so his arm was over Hanai's shoulders and their legs were tangled together. He lay there until Hanai's breathing began to drift towards sleep and his face truly slackened with rest. Then he lay there a while longer for good measure. Finally, when he was satisfied he could move without too much of a disturbance, he extricated himself from Hanai's hold with more care than most people thought him capable of. Sneaking out of bed, he headed back to the living room for a few more rounds of video games.

**Saturday**

Saturday was a day off for both of them. They were going to the movies with the twins later, but in the meantime, Yuu had a mission. He texted José almost the minute he rolled out of bed, tapping out a message one-handed as he padded into the kitchen. José was always busy, even on his days off. He was an active member of the expat Hispanic community and had the kind of social schedule that meant he was only ever alone when he was in the bathroom. (Not that Yuu had room to talk. Hell, if last night was anything to go by, sometimes Yuu wasn't even alone when he _was_ in the bathroom.) He was gonna have to move fast if he wanted to catch José on his way out the door. 

The text came back ' _Y_ _eah I'm going out for lunch swing by before then?'_ and Yuu grinned. His heart was starting to pound. Excitement.

They did more informal meals on their days off, trying to eat up any leftovers in the fridge. For breakfast, whoever was up first would usually lay the options out. Yuu made two separate omelets, the egg whites one for him, the yolks going into one for Hanai. He also put the tea kettle on. Hanai appeared from their room about the time it was starting to whistle.

"I'm going out," Yuu said, already having inhaled most of his breakfast. "I wanna catch José before the movie. I'll meet you guys at the theater, okay?"

Hanai blinked at him, startled. "Okay...Wait, you want to tell him _today?_ " 

"Yeah, is that cool?" No sense in putting it off, Yuu figured. When you loved someone you wanted to brag about them, right?

"I— Sure." Hanai hesitated, as if trying to decide if he really did want to say 'sure,' but eventually he nodded again. "At least it'll be out of the way."

"Right, that's what I was thinking!"

Hanai hesitated again. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"Nah s'fine." Yuu scratched at the side of his nose, deliberately casual. "Can't talk shit about you if you're there right?"

Hanai huffed. "Just don't talk about my ass and I'll be happy."

"Oh yeah? So I can talk about _anything else?_ " Yuu wiggled his eyebrows. Hanai swatted at him. He ducked, laughing. 

It was a little after 10:00 a.m. by the time he left, hopping on the bus that ran towards José's apartment. José had just moved out of the team dorms this year, needing a better place in anticipation of bringing his wife to Japan soon. The whole team was looking forward to it. They had all met Elena over video chat at some point or another and she seemed cool as hell. José could always be found talking to her in the scant overlap of waking hours between Puerto Rico and Tokyo. 

"Tajima!" José swung open his apartment door, grinning at him. "Come in, come in. Want anything to drink?"

"Hey, captain." Tajima took his shoes off by stepping on the backs of them, a habit that drove Hanai and his mother crazy in equal measure. "I'm good."

"Suit yourself. Oh, hang on." And he lifted his phone to his mouth, speaking in rapid-fire Spanish as he sent off another voice clip, doubtless to his wife.

"How's Elena?" Yuu asked.

"She's good. We're having a fight right now." José said this in the same tone he might comment that his wife was having dinner right now.

"No way," Yuu said, matching that tone. "What about?" 

"Pokemon. She thinks she's more of a Bulbasaur than I am."

Yuu studied his friend with an air of deep concentration, taking in the stocky build, the shaved cut through his eyebrow. "I think you're more like a Venasaur than a Bulbasaur."

"But Venasaur _came_ from Bulbasaur. So I'm still Bulbasaur." José spun his phone around on the table, waiting for whatever reply his wife would make next. After a second he lifted his head again to look at Yuu. "Anyway, what's up? What was so special it couldn't wait?"

If it was Hanai doing this, Yuu was sure he would have sat José down properly, would have prefaced it with a speech about how he respected and trusted José as a friend and a captain. And maybe that _was_ the proper way to do it. As it was, Yuu just said, "I got something to show you." He took his phone out of his pocket, found the picture he wanted and handed it over. He watched José's face change as he took it in, watched his eyebrows climb up towards his hair.

The picture was from two weeks ago. Yuu had been flexing shirtless in front of the mirror, showing off the results of his pre-season training. That was the day the entire team group chat had been posting pictures along with the exact amounts of muscle weight they'd gained. This had been one of the pictures that Yuu hadn't sent. In it, Hanai had come into the bathroom with him, had wrapped his arms around Yuu's waist and was in the middle of pressing a kiss to Yuu's cheek. It was cute and sweet, but it was also unmistakable. Showing it to José was unmistakable. The first creeping step over the ice.

José looked up from the phone. "...Is this your baby?" he asked. 

"Sure is." Yuu's heart was pounding loud, but not fast. His voice was steady. 

José studied the picture again. José was solid. The ice held. "He's a handsome devil, isn't he?"

" _Oh_ yeah." Yuu reached for his phone. "Here, I gotta show you a better picture of his face." Taking it back, he scrolled through his camera roll. He was aware that José was watching him closely. He didn't let it get to him. "Here, look at this one."

This picture was one Yuu had taken when they were out at some artsy café. Hanai had his chin propped in his hand and was smiling wryly at the camera, a direct result of Yuu insisting he looked especially hot that day. "Good face," José agreed, studying this new picture.

"I know, right? Our last year of high school he got like, a dozen girls confessing to him, how crazy is that?" Actually it had been thirteen exactly. The entire team had kept track.

José smiled. "Sounds like Elena in high school. How long have you two been together?"

"Summer after our second year of college," Yuu said. "So, four years now?" 

José nodded, turning this over. "I'm guessing none of the other guys know?"

"Yeah, you're the first one I've told."

"Well, if you ever wanna tell the rest of them, I'll back you up." José spread his arms along the back of the couch and tipped his head towards the ceiling, thinking. "Really though, I figure it's management you gotta worry about. Lot of old-guard vs. new-guard between us."

"Buncha old rednecks," Yuu agreed. 

"Are you gonna bring him to the end of training?" 

"I want to." Yuu tilted his head. "He's kinda shy though, so he's gotta think about it." Hanai would 100% object to being called shy, even though he could _totally_ get skittish about this kinda stuff. He had damn good reasons but still. Yuu was unrepentant.

"Well, like I said, if you want to do it I'll back you up. We can sit him on our end of the table—" meaning, with Raoul and Monica, "—and it'll be all good."

"Yeah!" Yuu enthused. "He's been totally wanting to meet you guys."

"I'd like to meet him," José agreed. There was a stretch of companionable silence before he looked at Yuu again. "...Good talk?"

"Good talk."

"Neat. Wanna see some game footage my mom sent me from the Caribbean league?"

"Hell yeah I would!"

He texted Hanai when he was leaving José's apartment, a simple ' _it's all good!!_ ' before heading for the bus again. He got an ' _Oh good_ ' in return. Hanai would feel awkward expressing just how relieved he was over text. 

Yuu hadn't even realized he was in a sappy mood until his music switched over the mixtape Hanai made him (and _oh_ _boy,_ was Hanai a sap sometimes) and his heart started clenching funny in his chest. He kept listening anyway, because it was a good kind of funny. He managed to hold out until some song about marriage came on. With a soft laugh at himself, he changed to his workout mix. Thoughts about his boyfriend in a wedding suit were not something he felt like having on public transit.

Hanai and the twins were waiting for him outside the movie theater. Haruka spotted him first. "Yuu-niichan!" she called.

"Haru! What's up?" He strolled up to her, taking her in as he went. "You and Asuka switch clothes again?" The twins had developed their own sense of fashion as they had hit their later teen years. Haruka's style was what Yuu would call 'popular-girl-wears-black.' Asuka was into the various kinds of kei, mostly fairy kei, she said. Sometimes they switched styles just to mess with people. 

"How'd you know it was me?" Haruka drawled. 

Yuu shrugged. "You stand like Haru." He eyed her outfit. "Cool bag." She was wearing a giant bunny on her back.

"Thanks, it has like no actual space to carry stuff."

"It's not _about_ how much you can carry!" Asuka insisted. "It's about the _statement_."

"What kinda statement can you get from a giant rabbit?" Hanai asked.

Asuka frowned at him. "Attention," she said primly. 

Yuu threw back his head and laughed. "Can't argue with that!"

"Here's your ticket," Hanai said, handing it to him as they began to walk into the theater. "Does someone want to hold our seats? I'll get in line for snacks." 

"I call Yuu-niichan," Asuka said. "We'll hold the seats."

"Kiss-ass," Haruka muttered. 

"I don't mind," Yuu said to forestall any bickering. Asuka gripped his arm and led him in towards the theater. 

The movie was some sexy new action-adventure type. It was a fun ride, even if Yuu could see Hanai crossing his arms and scowling every time something happened that he thought didn't make sense. Haruka did the same thing. Yuu ignored both of those old wet blankets and focused on quietly cheering with Asuka any time someone did something particularly cool.

They treated the twins to an earlier dinner after that, a small homestyle-cooking restaurant so Yuu could get all his vegetables and non-processed fats or whatever the hell. "I can't _wait_ to try that kombucha stuff," he muttered as they ordered. "I'll take any alcohol at this point."

"You drink kombucha now?" Haruka asked him.

"Yeah, the whole team's s'pposed to go out and drink it at the end of spring training," he said. He blinked at her in surprise. "Hey, how'd you know what kombucha is? _I_ didn't even know."

Hanai snorted and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "That's not surprising, Yuu." Yuu kicked him under the table. 

"We're making some in science class. We've got a project on fermentation." 

"Yo, no way!" 

"Maybe you should come with us," Hanai suggested lightly. "You can be our kombucha sommelier." Yuu's head whipped around to stare at him.

"' _With us?'_ " he demanded. "You're coming?" 

Hanai blinked at him. He's face was a perfect mask of casualness but Yuu could see the steel in the expression. "Yeah, of course," he said. "José invited me, didn't he?" He said it like it was nothing. Like three years ago it would haven't have taken him ten times longer to get to this point. 

Yuu was outright staring now. Hanai stared right back. His eyes were dark and familiar and pretty. Yuu should hire someone to write a poem about them, he figured. For a too-long moment neither of them spoke. 

He distantly heard the twins sigh. "Oh, _here_ we go," Haruka muttered, reaching out to snag some more edamame. 

"They're so gross," Asuka agreed. Yuu ignored them both. Hanai's mouth was fighting a small little smile. Yuu's eyes dropped to watch it.

"Will you two ever stop being gross in public?" Haruka demanded.

Hanai rolled his eyes. "Real nice manners, Haruka," he said, even as he shoved his hand in Yuu's face. Yuu squawked and righted himself in his seat, dragging his own hand over his face to recover.

 _Just you wait till I get my hands on you,_ he thought. He nudged Hanai's foot again and was gratified when Hanai nudged back.

After dinner, they said goodbye to the twins and headed for the train station. "Maybe you can come clubbing with us sometime," Yuu said as they went. He'd perfected the art of walking so that he was pressed against Hanai's side even when they couldn't hold hands. 

"With who? The team?" 

"Yeah! It's a party."

The look that earned him was extremely dry. "I've heard the stories, Yuuichirou. I know what you people like to get up to when you go clubbing."

"Eh that's just the young guys," Yuu said, cheerfully ignoring the fact that most of 'the young guys' were the same age he was. "All the married guys just go to hang out!"

Hanai's eyebrows rose. "You're doing a pretty good job of acting like I've never been to the club with you before," he said. Which probably meant ' _You're acting like I don't remember the time you pulled me into the bathroom of a gay bar for some hot, semi-public sex, which I was SO TOTALLY into, by the way._ ' This was confirmed when Hanai added, "Remember what happened last time?"

"What?" Yuu said. He tucked his hands behind his head. "S'not like I'd do it in mixed company." 

"Didn't you tell me two different guys on your team got in trouble last year for, what did you call it? 'Nailing ass in the bathroom?'" The shortcut they were taking to the station was along a deserted little side road. Hanai never would have brought this up otherwise. The look in his eyes was mostly a mixture of exasperation and fondness. 

"Yeah? So?"

" _So_ , how long are we going to be partying with the team before you try to convince _me_ to nail ass in the bathroom?" Hearing him say those words in his proper little voice made Yuu grin.

He felt unrepentant as he said, "I'd have more self-control if you were less hot." 

Hanai scowled. His ears were bright red. "Oh, shut up." 

"What if I was the one getting nailed? Would that be better?"

"Wha—No!" Oh, a voice crack, nice. Didn't get too many of those nowadays. "No, it is _not_ better if you're the one getting nailed," Hanai hissed at him, glancing around warily as they rejoined the main road. "Look. When your teammates get caught with a girl in the bathroom, it's someone the team never has to see again. _I,_ on the other hand, would like to have José over for dinner sometime and I would rather not have that conversation with him after he has caught me...canoodling!"

Yuu threw back his head and laughed, long and loud. "'Canoodling?' Who says 'canoodling' anymore? You sound like my grandpa!"

Hanai shoved him with his shoulder and Yuu, laughing too hard to resist, went stumbling. Hanai took no pity on him and kept walking. Yuu just righted himself and loped after him, hands stuck in his pockets, not a care in the world.

The train ride home took _forever._ Yuu sat himself across the aisle from Hanai, who scrolled through his phone and pretended he didn't see Yuu staring him down like an on-coming pitch. When Yuu got sick of being ignored, he took out his own phone and texted, ' _i wanna fuck.'_ The expression on Hanai's face when the message arrived made Yuu cover his mouth with the back of his hand to keep from laughing out loud. 

' _azsunnn,_ ' he texted again. ' _when we get home let's fuckkk'_

Hanai's ears were red. He looked up at Yuu from across the aisle and very deliberately put his phone away. Yuu just smirked at him. He had sat across the aisle from Hanai because he knew he needed to keep his hands to himself but this distance was better for looking. So he contented himself with looking. There was a low hum warming his body as he observed his boyfriend's long legs, his trim waist, his hands with their clever, tapered fingers. He ran his tongue over his top teeth and remembered those legs wrapped around his waist, that waist under his hands, those hands scratching down his back. 

Good thing this train ride was only twenty minutes. 

His phone lit up. At text from Hanai. _'Stop undressing me with your eyes,'_ it said. Yuu looked up at him and grinned, then tipped his head back, obedient. He rested it against the train window and closed his eyes and remembered some more. 

When they finally got off the train, they walked back to their apartment with their hands brushing. The door to their apartment had barely clicked shut before Hanai said, "Alright. How do you want me?" His posture was open and loose and willing.

Yuu inhaled, feeling his eyes gleam and a smile break out over his face. "Come on," he said, lacing their fingers together and dragging Hanai towards the bedroom. "I'm in a really sappy mood right now."

Hanai's laugh left him in a soft huff. "Oh good."

"I mean we don't _have_ to make it sappy," Yuu said over his shoulder, just to tease.

"No, no," Hanai said quickly. "Sappy is good." Yuu laughed. Hanai was always in a sappy mood too, somewhere under all his exasperation and straight-laced thinking. He had books of poems on the shelves and Yuu pretended not to know some of those poems made Hanai think of him. Knowing that made him so squirmy and mushy inside he could hardly stand it. 

To get back at Hanai for making him feel that way, Yuu gave his shoulders a light push once they were in the bedroom. Hanai plopped onto the bed with a light laugh. Those big dark eyes looked up at him and Yuu came to stand between his knees. "You want sappy?" Yuu told him, taking his face in both hands. "Check this out." 

He knew Hanai's favorite way to be kissed; slow and deep, patient and insistent all at once. If Yuu did it right, he would be able to see Hanai's shoulders rising and falling with the shortness of breath. He held Hanai's head in place to keep it going, knowing if Hanai really needed to he could still pull back. He did pull back eventually, panting, his mouth slick and red.

"Yeah," he agreed, catching his breath. Yuu needed to do the same. "That was pretty sappy."

"More where that came from," Yuu told him, pushing his shoulders back and crawling onto the bed after him. 

Hanai's hands came up to his waist, slipping under Yuu's shirt and pushing the fabric up towards his shoulders. He was laughing a little. "So come on, give it to me." 

Yuu allowed his shirt to be pulled off, let Hanai drag his nails lightly up Yuu's sides the way he liked when he was aroused. He settled himself more comfortably and fell into the task of marking up the smooth line of Hanai's neck. Hanai's neck was like Yuu's ears; he could get fully hard just by Yuu sucking on it. Lying on Hanai's chest like this, he got to feel the way his breath stuttered as Yuu left deep bruises against his golden skin. 

"S'really pretty," he murmured. "Your neck is really pretty." 

"Oh come on," Hanai panted. "It's just a neck."

"Oh yeah?" Yuu pulled back to look at him. "You telling me you don't think all kinds of sappy things about _my_ neck?" 

Hanai glared up at him, mouth twisted up in embarrassment. "Maybe," he said. Yuu laughed and leaned down to kiss his pout away.

"I like you," he murmured between kisses. "I like you, I like you." 

"I like you too." Hanai's long arms wrapped around his neck. His hands cradled Yuu's head. "I'm gonna marry you one day, Tajima Yuuichirou." 

Yuu hooked his feet under Hanai's calves in a bid to get closer. "Yeah but I'm gonna beat you to the proposal."

"I'm better at planning," Hanai murmured. "It's gonna be me." 

"Nah." Yuu bit down a little just to make Hanai gasp and arch up against him. Slipping his hands down Hanai's body, he began to pull his shirt up. "Come on, time to strip." Hanai arched again, rocking so they could get his shirt off together. 

"Pants next," Hanai said, and Yuu rolled off him for a moment so they could both get out of their pants and underwear. "Now get back here, it's cold," Hanai said once Yuu's pants had been kicked to the floor. 

"Don't be a wimp," Yuu teased, even as he climbed back onto him eagerly. He kissed Hanai once, quickly and then wriggled down to press kisses to his chest, to suck on a nipple. "Hey, you're the best, you know that?" It wasn't easy for him to get all mushy usually, especially knowing he didn't have any fancy words like Hanai did. Still, in moments like this, he did his best because Hanai loved those words and Yuu loved Hanai. 

He had once told Yuu that joining Nishiura's baseball team in high school was like getting thrown into the deep end of the pool. That he'd thought he had been in the deep end before, but he'd only been in the kiddie pond. He said he hadn't even known what it felt like to want to impress someone until suddenly there were people like Yuu and Coach Momoe, who seemed impossible to impress. Hearing a simple "Well done!" from either of them could fuel him for days, he'd said.

"I don't know who I would have been without you and Momokan there to whip me into shape." He told Yuu that right before they'd left for college. They had gone walking out in the fields behind the Tajima house one night. "I'd probably be some arrogant jock at some other school who thought he knew something. Who thought he'd already proven himself." Yuu remembered the pensive shake of his head. "I didn't know the first thing about proving myself." 

Yuu could see that. He'd seen how Hanai had spent years in high school, watching him, thinking furiously, wrestling wildly with the learning curve Coach Momoe had set for them. He remembered how even when Hanai had gotten discouraged and frustrated and even angry with himself, he never gave up. He never backed down from the responsibilities Momokan had put on his shoulders. Yuu remembered the way it had absolutely floored him when Hanai's struggling began to pay off. _Man,_ he remembered thinking. _Team captain, smart as hell, and now a monster on the field? Talk about a triple-threat._ All of Hanai's good qualities, his prowess and reliability and mental fortitude were no less attractive to Yuu for being hard-won. If anything, seeing the struggle that had gone into them made him that much prouder.

It was easy, in light of all of it, to want to press his words into Hanai's skin. "I really mean it, you know," he told Hanai, looking down at him with unrelenting focus. Hanai looked so good like this, the sheets of their bed rumpled to frame his body. "You really are the best." 

Hanai's hands cupped his face. "Come here." And this time, Yuu found himself being kissed the way _he_ liked, open-mouthed and dirty. His bottom lip got caught between Hanai's teeth, suckling, and Yuu felt another wave of heat wash over his whole body. "You are," Hanai breathed as he finally released him, "the most amazing person I have ever met."

Yuu whined, pressing his face into Hanai's neck to hide. "No fair. Why do you gotta be so much better than me at this stuff?" 

He felt Hanai's arms come up to hold him. Hanai's legs came to hook around his own. "You do great, Yuu,” he said quietly. “You do so much more than I deserve."

"But you _do_ deserve it though!" Yuu pushed himself up, his hands on either side of Hanai's head, staring down at him. "You do! How come you never believe me?" 

He stared so hard, he saw tears starting to form at the corners of Hanai's eyes. "Stop, stop," he protested, voice wet. "You're gonna make me cry." 

"Aw, you big sap." Yuu nuzzled against Hanai's chest. Hanai cried sometimes when they made love. It was his way of dealing when he felt too much, the same way Yuu tended to deal by hiding his face. With a deep, happy, shuddering breath, he looked up at Hanai again. "Hold onto the headboard for me, 'kay?" He felt a smug look come over his face. "I'm about to blow your freaking mind." 

Hanai's laugh stuttered as Yuu's tongue fell back to his chest. "Okay," he breathed at the ceiling. Yuu's knee came to press between his legs, even as he gently took Hanai's nipple into his teeth. " _Oh_ -kay." 

Taking Hanai's hands out of the equation meant the rest of his body was a lot more responsive in a bid to get out all the pent-up energy. Hanai was fully grinding on his thigh before Yuu even moved to the other side of his chest. "Heh," Yuu panted, pleased with himself. 

"Yuu—" Hanai's voice hitched. "Yuu, you're so obnoxious. Don't make me _wait._ " 

"Hm? Did you say somethin'?" Yuu stretched himself up towards Hanai' neck again, smug as a cat with a mouse. Sinking his teeth in, he began to suck a fresh mark into the other side of Hanai's neck. Hanai jerked against Yuu's leg, smearing himself against the crease of his hip.

" _Yuu,_ ah—"

He wondered if any of Hanai's poetry had words for how he felt. Words for respecting someone so much that their approval made you feel like the top of the food chain. He wondered if there were poems for finding your boyfriend so unbearably attractive that you wanted to eat him alive. "You're so damn pretty, Azsun," he told him again. 

Only when he realized Hanai was trying to hook a leg around his waist did Yuu finally relent. "Prep time," he said, pulling away with a grin. 

"Prep time," Hanai agreed, catching his breath. The sight of his rib cage heaving was beautiful enough for a museum, probably. "Are you going to let me touch you yet?"

"Nope, not yet." Yuu got the lube and condoms from his bedside stand. Hanai said they had to go on Yuu's side because he was the horny one and Yuu bore that responsibility like a badge of honor. He poured a generous amount of lube onto his fingers and rubbed his hands together to warm it up. In the meantime, he pressed kisses down the inside of Hanai's knee using some of that core strength they'd been developing in spring training to keep his balance. He shifted forward onto one knee, pressing his face to the dusting of hair that covered Hanai's upper, inner thighs. He'd always found it weirdly hot. Forget the stomach, _this_ was the real treasure trail, right here. 

He rubbed excess lube over the back of his hand, making sure his fingers were totally coated before he got to work. Laying on his stomach, he propped himself up on his elbows, mouthing at Hanai's dick even as his fingers stretched him out. 

"Have I ever told you," Hanai panted, as he struggled not to shudder. "That your hand-eye coordination is _unreal?_ " 

Yuu grinned at him, rewarding him with a long drag of his tongue when Hanai looked down to meet his eyes. "Well, that's how I pay the bills right?" he pointed out, licking a little excess saliva from his lips. There was still a sheen of lube on his left hand. He wiped it off on the sensitive skin between Hanai’s legs, just to make him buck. 

"Hey!" Hanai hissed, glaring. He'd dropped his hands from the headboard at some point, but was keeping them up around his head obediently, gripping the sheets for something to hold. 

"Heheh." Yuu traced a pattern through the wetness there, the beginnings of his name. Hanai twitched wildly.

"Demon," he said, his head falling back to the pillow. "I'm dating a demon."

Yuu lowered his mouth to hover over Hanai's head. "Sounds kinky." And he made sure to suck _hard_ , deliberately cutting off any retort.

Yuu prepped him until he was whining and writhing, the muscles along his legs clenching over and again, and his heels grinding into the sheets. It was the hottest thing in the world, seeing his boyfriend this turned on. "Okay, I'm gonna put the condom on," he said, patting around for it in the sheets. 

"I'd offer to do it," Hanai said. "But seeing as _some_ one said I can't use my hands..."

Yuu considered. "Here," he said, holding out the foil packet. "Bite."

Hanai took the edge of the wrapper in his teeth, staring up at Yuu through his lashes. Yuu ripped the packet open. 

_Goddamn,_ he thought as he fished the condom out. If Yuu hadn't been hard before, that visual sure would have done it. "Can you imagine if younger us saw us now?" he asked as he rolled the condom on. "They'd think we're super hot."

"We're way more coordinated than they were, that's for sure," Hanai said. He punctuated this statement by nudging the bottle of lube towards Yuu with his foot. "That move would not have worked when we were twenty."

Yuu scooped it up and set about slicking himself. "That's my point. We're hot now."

"Hot, sure." Hanai sounded distracted. His eyes watched Yuu's hand at work over the condom. "Can I touch you _now?_ " 

"Not yet."

Hanai threw his head back against the pillow. " _Yuuichirou."_ The whine in his voice was music to Yuu's ears. Hanai was the cutest thing in the world when he got all pouty like that. He kissed Hanai's knee. 

"I'll tell you when." And spreading Hanai's legs a little wider, he eased himself in. 

The routine was familiar by now. Yuu knew to watch for the rusty click in the back of Hanai's throat that meant he was still adjusting. He knew to wait until the rise and fall of his chest started to steady out, deep and ponderous. "Okay," Hanai said, hitching his hips up, settling himself in. He offered Yuu a rare sharp-toothed grin. "Let's do this."

Yuu grinned back, wolfish, and hooked one hand under Hanai's thigh. "Up." And together they hiked it onto Yuu's shoulder. "Comfortable?"

Hanai shifted a bit. "Yeah," he confirmed, the word leaving him in a contented sigh. Yuu started to move.

Okay. There was _one thing_ hotter than Hanai being aroused—getting the chance to make good on that arousal. Seeing Hanai feel good was the _best_ , just as good as Yuu getting fucked himself. He had spent the years of their relationship learning all of Hanai's tells. When Hanai's body had relaxed even further, when he was arching up to meet Yuu again and again, when his other leg was trying to hook itself around Yuu's waist, Yuu knew it was time. He took Hanai's thigh off his shoulder and pushed it up towards his chest. Hanai made a choked-off gasp, head digging back into the pillow at the new angle. 

_"Yuu,_ " he gasped. Yuu grinned, taking advantage of the way Hanai was folded to lean down and kiss his open mouth, his thigh sliding to the crook of Yuu’s elbow.

"You can touch me now," he panted. 

As he'd hoped they would, nails came up to dig into his shoulder blades, hanging on determinedly despite the tangle of limbs. They dragged Yuu forward, or maybe dragged Hanai up to meet him. Tears were forming in Hanai's eyes again, and he was gasping like he was about to gag. He'd told Yuu before that it was fine, that he liked the way the angle did something funny to his insides. Yuu adored getting to apply that knowledge practically. 

He was putting all the weight of his shoulder into pushing Hanai's thigh up, now. Hanai's arms were hooked under Yuu's, curling back onto his shoulders. "I like you so much," Yuu told him. Maybe he was gasping too. "Azsun, I love you so much." 

Hanai came first, painting Yuu's stomach, his nails biting into Yuu's skull. 

When he had stilled again, Yuu pulled himself out carefully, easing Hanai's thigh down onto the bed. Hanai was too sensitive after coming for him to continue, only wanted to be pushed that way when he was in a certain mood. He would be panting and loose-limbed for a while and if Yuu were to kiss him like this he would probably drool. He looked good like that too. Yuu would enjoy looking at him while he finished himself off.

Hanai turned towards him, almost sleepy as Yuu wrapped a hand around himself. "Wait, what are you doing?"

"What?" Yuu raised his eyebrows. His grin managed to be soft. "I'm not just gonna leave it like this."

"Let me do it," Hanai murmured. "Just sit up against the headboard, I'll do it." 

So Yuu scooted over, his cock in hand, and Hanai rolled onto his stomach, fitting himself between Yuu's legs. The color was still high on his cheeks and his eyelashes seemed heavy every time he blinked. "Condom off," he ordered sizing Yuu up where he held himself in hand. Yuu obliged him with a smirk, peeling it off and tossing it towards the waste bin in the corner with practiced ease. It sailed right in. Hanai laugh puffed against Yuu's hot, newly exposed skin. He muttered something that sounded like _'unreal'_ before looking up at Yuu again. "This is gonna be sloppy," he warned.

Yuu hummed. "I love sloppy."

"Don't I know it," Hanai muttered. He began to lick with long stripes of his tongue, coating the skin with saliva.

It didn't take long. Not with how worked up Yuu had been already and how Hanai looked, spread out naked and comfortable, like there was absolutely nowhere else he'd rather be. After Yuu came, Hanai politely spit the mess into a tissue, hand on Yuu’s thigh while he caught his breath.

Afterwards Yuu got the washcloth and cleaned them up. Once he was satisfied that they weren't gonna soil the sheets, he got the blanket and drew it up over them both. 

"Hey," he began once they'd settled in. He knew he had to say this, just to make sure it was clear. "Thanks for wanting to come. To the dinner." His face was pressed into Hanai's shoulder, hiding. "It means a lot to me."

Hanai's arm was thrown around his shoulders. "Is that what got you so wound up on the way home?" His question was gentle. Like he already knew.

Yuu nodded against his bare skin. "I really wanted to show my appreciation, you know? 'Cause I know it's not so easy to just be like 'fuck it, let's tell people.' So...Thanks." 

"Yeah, of course." A soft kiss was pressed against Yuu's forehead. "We're in this together, Yuuichirou." And he found himself getting tucked from closely against Hanai's chest, letting Hanai hold him, safe like a teddy bear, until he fell asleep.

**The End of Spring Training**

The restaurant was some trendy place, with their menus printed on cardstock and clipped to clipboards. The writing of the sign was what Haruka would call _'one of_ _those_ _fonts'_ thin and black. Yuu almost wished they had brought the twins with them so he could hear her commentary on everything about the place. She was the age where she always had something sarcastic to say and Yuu found it hilarious.

Hanai was wearing his game face. He was still dressed in his work clothes, and he looked handsome and professional. He'd got his crew cut touched up at the barbershop earlier in the week because it made him less nervous to have a fresh haircut. Yuu knew better than to make fun of him for that. Instead he'd run his hands over it in the privacy of their own home, murmuring all kinds of stupid pick-up lines just to get Hanai to laugh. 

Now, in the walk up to the front door of the restaurant there was barely a hitch in their step. There was however, Yuu turning to push the door to the place open with his back so he could look Hanai in the eye. "Play ball," he whispered.

Hanai rolled his eyes and grinned.

The team had rented out the entire restaurant for the evening. The setting felt almost like a dinner party at someone's house. Yuu, who had never been in a rented-out restaurant before looked around and around, taking it all in. Hanai for his part, appeared to be taking in all the other plus ones. A few of the other team members were married or in relationships. Yuu wondered if Hanai was anxious about the amount of speculation around Yuu’s mysterious relationship. Probably. Still, Yuu was willing to bet that once everyone heard how the two of them knew each other, that would be enough to distract them from speculating about anything else.

"Tajima!" Raoul called. "How's it going? Who's this?" He got up from the table as they approached, holding out his hand.

"Hey buddy." Yuu shook his hand with enthusiasm. This was how Raoul greeted everyone, no matter how many times they'd met. "This is Hanai, he was the captain of our team back in high school." A few heads turned at this. 

Raoul shook Hanai's hand too. "How you doing," he said. "Thanks for looking after this guy."

Hanai smiled. "I should be saying that to you all."

"Really?" someone asked as the two of them sat down. "He’s from your famous first-year team?" There were murmurs from the rest of the table.

Yuu smirked to himself. _Jackpot._

The Famous First Years. That was what everyone had called them after they'd gone to the Koushien. Never mind that by the time they'd made it to nationals, they weren't just a team of first years anymore. But there had been all kinds of write-ups about them, the team who started with just ten freshmen and a woman coach. Who'd made Best Sixteen in the Prefecture in their first-ever tournament showing. Even now, people from their generation remembered it.

"That's us!" Yuu said proudly. "Hanai was captain all three years!"

"Hey, you gotta tell us," someone else said. "What was Tajima like in high school?"

Hanai smiled. "Loud and horny."

"Oh so nothing's changed." Laughter rang around the table. A few seats down, José caught Yuu's eye and nodded approvingly.

It wasn't perfect, Yuu knew. Even now, part of him chafed at the fact that all the wives and the girlfriends could get introduced as exactly who they were. Some of the girlfriends had been with his teammates for less time than he'd been with Hanai. Hell, one of the _married_ couples had only been together three years total. But it was a good start. To have José know, and to have at least one more teammate he planned to tell (two, if he counted Monica), that was good. Hanai was having fun, and that was good too. He was offering up the details of Nishura's miracle team with all the confidence of someone who'd gotten used to talking to newspapers again and again. 

"We were the fourth and fifth-hole batters," Yuu heard him saying at one point. "They called us 'the clean-up crew.'"

"It wasn't like any other training I'd seen before," he said a while later. "They made us hold hands and taught us how to meditate—no I'm serious!" 

And Yuu jumped in enthusiastically. “He’s right! You wanna know how I learned what alpha waves are?”

“What’s ‘alpha waves?’”

"Your boy's a hit," José murmured after the food arrived, when he was coming around with the pitcher of beer the staff had left, topping everyone up. 

Yuu grinned. "I knew he would be." 

"I want him to meet Elena sometime. You think he'd go for it?" 

Yuu's heart warmed at this. Meeting Elena over one of José's endless video calls was basically an initiation ritual. "Totally!" he said with an enthusiastic nod. He nudged Hanai's foot under the table. Hanai turned toward him, just like Yuu knew he would. Just like he always had. "And when you finally bring her over here, they should totally meet in person." He turned to look at Hanai too. "Whaddya say? Wanna meet the missus?"

Hanai looked between the two of them, steady and reliable. "Absolutely," he said. Under the table, his foot pressed against Yuu's and stayed. "José. How do you feel about dinner?"

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> That thing Hanai says about him and Tajima eventually being referred to as "the clean-up crew" is real. [ Oki mentions it ](https://mangakakalot.com/chapter/ksr4253125/chapter_137) in chapter 137. (Scroll to page 8 if you don't want to read the whole chapter)  
> And have a [Clementine von Radics poem](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/38/84/1f/38841fc553520e8b0522c2c420cae4ba.png) that one might find on Hanai's shelf.
> 
> Thank you for reading :) Comments and kudos are appreciated!


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